South Korea’s household debt increased to a record last quarter even as the central bank kept its interest rate restrictive, indicating the difficulty of reining in appetite for loans to buy properties.

Total household credit rose to 1,875.6 trillion won ($1.4 trillion) in the July-to-September period, up 0.2% from a year earlier, according to a Bank of Korea statement Tuesday. Mortgage loans led the growth, rising 4% to a record 1,049.1 trillion won.